Freezer Cooking Before Baby – Meal Elements

This is my third post on freezer cooking before Baby K #2 arrives. You can read about what I have baked here, and the meals I’ve already prepared here. In this post, I’ll share with you some “meal elements” I’ve prepped and frozen for simple meal prep after this next child invades blesses our lives.

Sloppy Joe Meat – I went ahead and precooked the meat and mixed my Manwich into it. After the mixture cooled, I divided the 2 pounds of sloppy joe mix into smaller containers for dinners and lunches later.

Pizza Dough – I regularly make pizza dough in my bread machine. I always use half right away and freeze the other half. It doesn’t rise as well after it’s been frozen, but covered in toppings, cheese and sauce, you really don’t notice much of a difference.

Frozen, Cooked Chicken Breasts and Thighs – I seasoned and cooked about four pounds of chicken breasts a while back. The other night I pulled out one with Mexican seasoning on it; heated it and chopped it up for some chicken nachos. It was fantastic.

Cooked Ground Beef – I found this recommendation on-line and cooked up a few extra pounds of ground beef I had in the refrigerator. I’m envisioning quick tacos or just beefing up a jar of store bough pasta sauce for an easy dinner.

Pre-formed burger patties – This was a super idea! I took 2 pounds of lean ground beef, added all of my burger meat ingredients (chopped onion, garlic Worchestershire, A-1, ketchup, etc), formed them into patties and separated them with parchment paper. I tested them the other night by tossing some of my frozen patties onto my George Foreman for a quick and easy burger dinner the other night. Are they just as good as freshly-made burger patties? Meh . . . maybe not. But I’m not hand-making my own burger patties after this baby arrives and I really like knowing what’s in my burger.

I’ve got a few weeks until this baby gets here–what else would you add??